Islamabad—The GTI has announced that Cybernet has joined the GTI as its first member from Pakistan. With spectrum lease in the 3.5GHZ band in the country’s most populous regions (including the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad/ Rawalpindi), Cybernet believes that the LTE ecosystem of devices and infrastructure is poised to play a key role in enhancing broadband adoption and availability in Pakistan.

Pakistan has seen immense growth in broadband adoption in recent times from wireless technologies such as Wimax and EVDO, which are steadily taking market share from fixed line technologies such as DSL.

"We are delighted to be accepted to the GTI, and look forward to working closely with global telecommunications companies to propel adoption of TD-LTE in Pakistan and beyond. We are convinced that LTE will become the preferred delivery medium for broadband in the near future. In addition to the high bandwidth features of fixed line services, LTE offers portability and ease of provisioning benefits. These advantages coupled with widespread integration of LTE in everyday computer devices such as notebooks and smart phones will usher a new era of growth in broadband in emerging markets." said Shahid Ahmed Khan, CEO, Cybernet.

The addition of Cybernet to the GTI will only enhance momentum for the TD-LTE standard and its ecosystem in the important but under-served broadband market of Pakistan - the sixth largest country in the world by population. Furthermore, broadband over 3.5GHz is an important sector in the wireless market with many operators looking to deploy TD-LTE on 3.5GHz.

GTI is a virtual open platform to advocate cooperation among global operators to promote TD-LTE. GTI is formed to create value for stakeholders across the TD-LTE ecosystem for early adoption of the technology and convergence of TD-LTE and LTE FDD.

The GTI was founded by leading international mobile network operators to meet the demands for growing mobile broadband and explore new opportunities across industry and public segments, it added.

Sourse: Pakistan Observer